Abstract
The strong few-cycle laser pulse interaction with the gas plasma filament can generate strong and broadband terahertz radiation. Here, we investigate the detail of plasma current and its terahertz radiation produced by the few-cycle laser pulse interaction with the gas plasma based on the calculations. The ionization during the plasma filamentation is in the transition between the tunnel ionization and the multiphoton ionization. The results show that this scheme can generate ultra-broadband radiation from the range of terahertz to mid-infrared, and its amplitude is a periodic function of the carrier-envelope phase of the few-cycle laser pulse. The frequency of the terahertz pulse is determined by the duration of the laser pulse, the time evolution of ionization and the plasma current, rather than by the density of the plasma. This work might give a useful clue to carry out the experiment of ultra-broadband terahertz generation by the few-cycle laser pulse interaction with the gas plasma filament.
The interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with the gas plasma filament has been used to generate strong and broad terahertz radiation since this kind of source does not have any damaged threshold for the interactive media, especially the two-color laser scheme and the few-cycle laser pulse scheme
There are several physical models on the terahertz radiation by the two-color laser pulse interaction with the air/gas plasma filament, in which the plasma current (some are called photocurrent or ionization current) model has shown its qualitative agreement with the experimental results
Until now, there are several mechanisms to explain why the emitted electromagnetic wave frequency is in the terahertz region: (1) when the plasma density is around 1
The few-cycle laser pulse also can generate strong and broad terahertz radiation via interacting with the gas plasma
When the ultrashort laser field is strong enough, it will affect and change the Coulomb force between the electrons and the nucleus, even ionize the atoms to free electrons and ions. This ionization process depends on the laser intensity (field strength) and the atom species. Two different physical mechanisms, multiphoton ionization (MPI) and tunnel ionization (TI), are used to describe the ionization interaction between the laser pulse and the atoms, which is characterized by the Keldysh parameter,[
The rigorous theory of ionization of atoms and molecules induced by the laser field needs to calculate the time-dependent Schrodinger equation of the particles based on the quantum theory
, | (1) |
where Z is the charge number of the nucleus, EH= V/m is the electric field strength between an electron and a proton on the first Bohr orbit of a hydrogen atom, is the effective main quantum number of the ionized electron, and Eion is the ionization potential in eV, El is the laser field strength in V/m. In the MPI process, a valence electron in the atoms usually absorbs several photons to escape the constraint of the nucleus, and the minimum-order perturbation theory can describe it well. The calculation result shows the ionization rate as

Fig. 1 The Keldysh parameter (a) and the ionization rate (b) with different laser intensities
图1 Keldysh因子(a)和离化率(b)与激光光强的对应关系
As shown in
2 Plasma current and terahertz radiation from the few-cycle laser pulse interaction with the gas plasma filament
The duration of a few-cycle laser pulse is only several femtoseconds, which makes it with only a few (even single) oscillations in a laser envelope. The interaction of such strong laser with the media (including molecules and atoms) is dependent on the oscillation of the pulse rather than its envelope, and the phase of the pulse would not be omitted
The few-cycle laser pulse has a form as
, | (2) |
where E0 is the field strength, T is connected with the pulse duration τ (full-width at half-maximum, FWHM) by , f is the central frequency, and φ0 is the phase. When the laser is linearly polarized, its strength can be replaced by a scalar.

Fig. 2 Two few-cycle laser pulses with durations of 9 fs (a) and 5 fs (b), respectively, with several different phases
图2 含有多个不同相位的、脉宽分别为9 fs(a)和5 fs(b)的少周期激光脉冲
2.2 The plasma current and its terahertz radiation induced by the few-cycle laser pulse interaction with nitrogen plasma
In this section, we give the detail of the calculations of the plasma current and its terahertz radiation from the few-cycle laser pulse. The strong ultrashort laser pulse ionizes the gas molecules to generate free electrons (plasma), the density of the electrons ne is determined by the density of the gas molecules n0 and the ionization rate w(t) as
. | (3) |
The subscript i=1,2,… in the equation means the order of the ionization. The nitrogen atoms are mainly one-order ionized and excited by a laser pulse with the intensity around 1

Fig. 3 The ionization rate induced by the few-cycle laser pulses with different phases
图3 不同相位的少周期激光脉冲产生的离化率
The gaseous molecules in the air have a rough density of 1 mol/22.4 L=2.688×1

Fig. 4 The plasma density produced by the few-cycle laser pulses with different phases
图4 相位不同的少周期激光脉冲电离产生的等离子体密度时间演化规律
The electron will be accelerated to form the current in the laser field after ionization, its velocity vi is given by
, | (4) |
where Ei(t) is the instantaneous field when the electron is ionized, e is the charge of the electron, and m is the mass of it. Then, the total plasma current is
. | (5) |
Because the field of the few-cycle laser is not symmetry as that of the two-color laser scheme, the electrons are accelerated to a velocity in the laser cycle to form a net current

Fig. 5 Plasma currents produced by the few-cycle laser pulses with different phases
图5 不同相位的少周期激光脉冲产生的等离子体电流
The electromagnetic radiation from the plasma current is calculated after obtaining the time evolution of the current. Here, the electric field from phase 0 is calculated from the formula , as shown in

Fig. 6 The ultra-broadband radiation in the terahertz to mid-infrared range generated by the plasma current, (a) the time waveform, (b) its frequency spectrum
图6 (a)等离子体电流产生的从太赫兹到中红外超宽带电磁辐射的时域波形,(b)其频谱分布
The CEP of the few-cycle laser pulses also has its influence during the ionization, as reported by Chetty et a

Fig. 7 The phase evolution of electromagnetic pulse depending on the phase of few-cycle laser pulses, (a) the pulse waveforms, (b) the frequency spectra
图7 (a)依赖少周期激光脉冲相位演化的电磁脉冲电场时域波形,(b)频谱分布

Fig. 8 The amplitude of electromagnetic pulse as a function of the phase of the few-cycle laser pulse
图8 电磁脉冲振幅与少周期激光脉冲相位的关系
The dispersion relation of the electromagnetic wave in the plasma is , where ω is the angular frequency of the wave, c is the speed of the light, and k is the wavevector of the wave. If the electromagnetic wave can propagate in the plasma, its frequency must be higher than the plasma frequency. Thus, the terahertz pulse shown in
By increasing the laser intensity from 0.11
The coherent detection techniques for broadband terahertz radiation include the photoconductor antenna, the electro-optic sampling, and the air coherent detection, with different response bandwidths
There is no propagation effect of the laser beam and the plasma filament in the plasma current model, therefore the spatial distribution of this ultra-broadband radiation cannot be given at present, only the ultrafast microscopic process of current and emission can be given. These results will help to understand the physical mechanism behind. This ultra-broadband pulse will extend its duration in gases (including air) after generation from the plasma. Thus, the propagation path of the terahertz pulse needs to be set in the vacuum environment.
In summary, the detail of the electromagnetic radiation from the terahertz to mid-infrared range generated by the interaction of the few-cycle laser pulse with the gas plasma filament is investigated based on the simulations. The ionization is mainly at the transient between the multiphoton ionization and the tunneling ionization for the laser intensity in the formation of the filament. Thus, a fitting formula is used to calculate the ionization rate. The free electrons are accelerated to form a plasma current, which oscillates rapidly during the laser pulse propagation. This current emits electromagnetic waves with the frequency determined by the laser duration and plasma current. The simulation results show this ultra-broadband radiation pulse has a bandwidth up to tens of terahertz, which is close to the mid-infrared regime. The pulse strength is dependent on the phase of the few-cycle laser pulse. In this case, the frequency spectrum is not determined by the density of plasma, but by the duration of the laser cycle. Thus, the few-cycle laser pulse can generate super-broadband radiation from the terahertz to mid-infrared range by interacting with the gas plasma filament. Our work will offer useful reference for the development of relevant experiments.
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